BOOK AND MEDIA REVIEWS

Floridas Fragile Wildlife: Conservation and Management features some

of the states many species of conservation concern. Ten of its 14 chapters concern birds: Wood Stork,
Sandhill Crane, Bald Eagle, Crested
Caracara, Southeastern American
Kestrel, Florida Burrowing Owl,
Red-cockaded Woodpecker, Florida
Scrub-Jay, Florida Grasshopper Sparrow, and two saltmarsh songbirds
(Marsh Wren and Seaside Sparrow,
together in one chapter). Its author
is Don A. Wood, formerly the endangered species coordinator for the
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. From over 500
species at risk in Florida, Wood
chose those: (1) that respond
quickly to beneficial land management practices; (2) for which information is frequently requested from
public agencies; and (3) that occur
primarily on public lands. The
species chapters are presented in
apparently random order (i.e., neither taxonomic nor alphabetical),
beginning and ending with birds,
and with one reptile and three mammal chapters in the middle.
Each chapter includes six subheadings: Status, Distinguishing
Characteristics, Habitat, Life History
and Behavior, Survey and Monitoring Techniques, and Management.
The accounts present succinct summaries of what is known about each
species. Extensive Relevant Literature is provided but most of the references are not cited specifically in
the text; only references for management techniques are cited. This system prevents the reader from
knowing which references were used
to support factual statements in the
text, and it reduces the books use-

322

fulness. All chapters received peer

review, and Wood collaborated with
scientists who have studied some of
the species. The books final chapter
deals with federal and state laws protecting native species.
Some of the bird species chosen
for inclusion in this book, especially
Red-cockaded Woodpecker and
Florida Scrub-Jay, already have been
the focus of numerous other books,
book chapters, proceedings, or technical reports. Others, such as Bald
Eagle and Sandhill Crane, have
increasing or stable populations, and
therefore may not fit the books title
of fragile species. The accounts are
of good quality, but Wood may have
better served managers of Floridas
public lands had he concentrated on
lesser-known, less numerous, or
declining species such as the Shorttailed Hawk, Black Rail, or Snowy
Plover (likely Floridas most endangered bird). For some species chosen,
the
management
recommendations seem unlikely to
benefit the species to any appreciable extent. How does one manage for
Burrowing Owls, for instance, when
virtually all known remaining pairs
reside in human-modified habitats
such as pastures and the edges of airport runways? Two of the recommendations
for
Sandhill
Cranecreating gaps in barbed-wire
fences through which cranes can
walk, and (somehow) rerouting
transmission lines to keep cranes
from colliding with the wiresdo
not seem feasible. I was surprised
that, although Wood includes a
chapter on saltmarsh songbirds, he
neglected to sound the alarm about
the passive management of the Cape
Sable Seaside Sparrow by federal
authorities, whose properties support the entire population. The same

type of hands-off management is

what drove to extinction its close
relative the Dusky Seaside Sparrow.
Information regarding Florida
Scrub-Jay distribution (p. 54) is
incorrect. Highlands County was
excluded from the list of counties
supporting substantial numbers of
scrub-jays, while Putnam County
was included in this list. In fact,
Highlands supported more groups
than any other county during the
19921994 statewide survey, while
Putnam contained only 10
groupsless than 0.3% of the total
population. Also, the preferred band
size for Florida Scrub-Jays is 3, not
2.
Although the primary audience of
Floridas Fragile Wildlife: Conservation and Management is land managers of properties that support the
(few) species included in the text,
conservation-minded birders may
also learn much from this volume.
But those who require more comprehensive information about all of
Floridas species of conservation
concern need to look elsewhere. In
particular, the five volumes in the
Rare and Endangered Biota of Florida
series
(published
variously
19921996 by the University Press
of Florida) are highly recommended, as are selected accounts in
The Birds of North America series.

Common Coastal Birds of Florida and

the Caribbean is a handbook for
those who enjoy that precarious
and ever-changing place where the
sea meets the land. Its author is
David Nellis, who served as chief for
the U.S. Virgin Islands Bureau of
Wildlife for 30 years. The books
title is a bit of a misnomer, as several

BIRDING JUNE 2004

BOOK AND MEDIA REVIEWS

species (e.g., White-cheeked Pintail,

Red-billed Tropicbird, Red-footed
Booby, Anhinga, Swallow-tailed Kite,
Red-shouldered Hawk, and Cave
Swallow) are common to only
either the Caribbean or Florida,
rather than to both regions. Following brief introductory material, the
book is divided into two parts: General Description and Photographs
and Species Accounts. The sections are separate, which requires
constant flipping back and forth.
Part I (General Description and
Photographs) consists of a description of each species, and it emphasizes identification, complemented
by usually 3 or 4 color photographs,
although Semipalmated and Least
Sandpipers are illustrated by single,
rather poor-quality photographs
each. Most photos are of good or
high quality and color reproduction
is fine, but most of the photos are
small, e.g., 1? 1? inches. Part II of
the book (Species Accounts) consists purely of text, divided into 10
sub-headings per species: Distribution, Food and Feeding Habits,
Reproduction, Behavior, Migration,
Predators, Longevity, Conservation
Issues, Notes, and Suggested Additional Reading. The accounts are
well researched and provide much
information about the natural history of each species. Measurements
are given extensively within the text
and conveniently are presented in
both English and metric units.
Accounts conclude with the listing
of 24 references each (except for
Least Sandpiper, which contains 15),
but none of these is actually cited in
the main text, which will limit the
books value to researchers.
Common Coastal Birds of Florida
and the Caribbean contains several
species whose ranges are primarily

324

non-coastal, such as Anhinga, Swallow-tailed Kite, Red-shouldered

Hawk, American Kestrel, and Cave
Swallow. Stranger still, several truly
coastal speciessuch as Common
Loon, Horned Grebe, Clapper Rail,
White-crowned Pigeon, Gray Kingbird, Marsh Wren, Florida Prairie
Warbler, Cuban Yellow Warbler, and
Seaside Sparroware not included.
The book concentrates on pelagic
species (which are found along
coasts only when nesting), while
passerines are poorly represented. I
noticed two misidentified photographs: a Red Knot as a Sanderling,
and a Willet as a Lesser Yellowlegs.
One Red-footed Booby photograph
appears to be upside-down, and captions for two Tricolored Herons photos are transposed. Scarlet Ibis is
regarded as a subspecies of White
Ibis. Three shorebirds that are solely
migrants or winter residents in the
region covered by the book are
shown incubating eggs or brooding
nestlings, which may confuse some
readers into thinking that these
species breed in Florida or the
Caribbean. A map showing the
region covered by the book would
have been helpful. Beginning and
advanced birders who wish to learn
more about some of the coastal birds
found in the region may find this
book helpful.

Birds of the Gulf Coast is a coffeetable book of wonderful photographs by Brian K. Miller of Baton
Rouge, Louisiana. Not surprisingly,
most of the photographs were taken
in Louisiana or Texas. The 16 photographs that were taken outside the
Gulf Coast states depict species that
occur regularly in the region. (Ironi-

cally, the cover photograph, of Herring Gulls at what appears to be a

landfill, was taken in British Columbia.) Miller is a skilled photographer, and his photographs range
from field-guide-type close-ups to
moody landscapes in which birds
represent only part of the image.
The book is divided into four chapters that follow the seasons. Each
chapter begins with a brief text by
William Fontenot of Lafayette,
Louisiana. The text introduces the
reader to events that are typical of
the seasons, such as neotropical
landbird migration, wading bird
nesting, and waterfowl flocking at
southern wintering grounds. I noted
no misidentifications, and there
were very few outdated standard
English names in the photo captions
and text.
The only gripe that I have with
the book is its titlethe books
focus is on the Gulf of Mexico west
of the Florida peninsula, rather than
the entire Gulf coast. (Elsewhere in
the book, the text refers to the
northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico, which better defines the region
covered by the book). I would have
wished for the inclusion of Florida
Gulf coast specialties such as Mangrove Cuckoo, Gray Kingbird,
Black-whiskered Vireo, Cuban Yellow Warbler, and Florida Prairie
Warbler. Additionally, saltmarsh
species such as rails, Marsh Wren,
and Seaside Sparrow are poorly represented. But these are minor quibbles, and this is a wonderful book.
Birders who are looking for highquality photographs of southern
species in their natural habitats
would do well to consider Birds of
the Gulf Coast.

BIRDING JUNE 2004

P U B L I C AT I O N R E V I E W

The Great Florida Birding Trail is a

project of the Florida Fish and
Wildlife Conservation Commission
and is planned for completion in
2006. The Guidebook for the East Sectioncovering the northeastern
peninsulais the first in a planned
series of four books. It features a soft
spine that conveniently allows it to
lie flat at almost any page. But its
size8 10 inchesseverely
reduces its portability in the field.
The bulk of the book consists of the
135 sites arranged in 23 clusters of
112 sites each. Accounts contain a
description of the site, portions
worth visiting, best months to visit,
and other information such as
entrance fees and whether seasonal
hunting occurs on the property. The
bird information in the accounts is
brief and typically of a general
nature (e.g., raptors, sparrows, and
blackbirds), with little or no
emphasis on sought-after species.
Furthermore, the seasonality of bird
occurrence is rarely indicated, which
is likely to confuse beginners.
Inserted among the site clusters
are 26 essays that relate mostly to
specialty birds of the region or
timely conservation issues such as
prescribed burning, nocturnal
migrant mortality from communication towers, and the restoration of

326

the Kissimmee River. These essays

were written by several Florida
ornithologists and are a clever addition to a site guide. Throughout the
book, the English names of birds are
not capitalized, with widespread use
of outdated or non-standard names
or spellings (e.g., American wood
stork, sora rail, great-horned owl).
More seriously, several errors concern the regional or seasonal occurrence of birds (e.g., stating that
American Bitterns breed in Florida,
or that Least Terns winter in the
state). The manuscript would have
benefited greatly from an ornithological review prior to publication.
Closing material consists of a
Resources for Birdwatchers section
that includes listings of selected conservation organizations, recommended field guides and other
publications, and telephone numbers for Rare Bird Alerts. Inexcusably, David Sibleys Sibley Guide to
Birds (2000) and the two most recent
comprehensive Florida bird books
(Robertson and Woolfenden, Florida
Bird Species: An Annotated List, 1992;
and Stevenson and Anderson, The
Birdlife of Florida, 1994) are
excluded from this section. Lastly, a
table lists all 135 sites and indicates
whether 13 species or groups of
birds occur in each. This table is
another nice feature, but the infor-

mation presented seems incomplete

for most or all of these categories.
The Guidebook lacks several sections that typify bird-finding guides,
such as accounts of specialty birds
and how and where to find them,
descriptions of habitats, traveling
tips and cautions, and bird checklists. The book also lacks an index.
These omissions and the editorial
problems mentioned above severely
reduce the Guidebooks value. Perhaps future volumes in the Great
Florida Birding Trail series will
address these shortcomings. Finally,
nearly all the information presented
in the Guidebook may be downloaded free of charge from the Bird<http://
ing Trails website:
www.floridabirdingtrail.com>.

Bill Pranty
1680 North Delaware Avenue #204
Avon Park FL 33825
billpranty@hotmail.com
Bi ll P ran ty is a member of the ABA Checklist Committee,
a technical editor for Birding and North American Birds,
and a regional editor for North American Birds. He is the
author of A Birders Guide to Florida (ABA, 1996), currently under revision. He studies Florida Scrub-Jays for
Archbold Biological Station in south-central Florida.

BIRDING JUNE 2004